As part of the Provost's Professional and Personal Development Academy, several professors from the English Department will lead the following workshops, which are open to all Brooklyn-Campus employees.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Click here to listen to Barry Lynn's recent interview with Professor Bernard Schweizer (English Department) about his book Hating God.

Culture Shocks is a media production of Americans United, "a nonpartisan organization dedicated to preserving the constitutional principle of church-state separation as the only way to ensure religious freedom for all Americans." Read more.

The English Department is pleased to announce its co-sponsorship (with Sociology/Anthropology) of a conference, Africa Forum, which will take place on Wednesday, November 17.

The topic of the conference is the experience of African immigrants in New York, and the program includes screenings of two interesting films, This America (filmmakers, Bethels Agomouh and Oliver Mbamaraand) and African Youth (filmmaker, Vigil Chime), as well as a reading by Uche Nduka (a student in the English Department's Creative-Writing MFA program) and novelist Teju Cole.

2.30 – 5.00 Screening of the film African Youth followed by discussion with film maker Vigil Chime. Moderator: Prof. Yusuf Juwayeyi

5.00 – 5.30 Informal reception

Note: Students who are taking Africa Forum for one course credit are required (i) to indicate their participation in today’s sessions by signing the attendance sheet at the end of both the morning and afternoon sessions, and (ii) to contact Professor Yusuf Juwayeyi by December 1st, 2010 to collect the course assignment.

Conference Participant Bios

Bethels AgomuohBethels Agomuoh began his career as an actor in Nigeria, appearing in productions at the National Theatre in Lagos before moving to the United States, where he has acted in plays Off and Off off Broadway. As a businessman, he founded AfricaMovies.com, the first internet site selling films from Nollywood, Nigeria’s film industry. He is a founder and the president of United African Artists, a not-for-profit organization supporting African performing artists in the Diaspora. He has directed, acted in, and/or worked on the scripts for a number of films, including This America and its recently-released sequel On the Run Again, A Mile to Cannan, In a Stranger’s Arms, Tears of my Joy, Unguarded, and Tobi.

Vigil ChiméVigil Chimé is a film producer, writer, editor, director, and novelist. As a child she moved with her family from Nigeria to Houston, Texas. She got a degree in English and technical writing from the University of Houston and then an MFA in film and screenwriting from Columbia. She has lived in New York since 1990. Her career as a filmmaker began in 2002 and includes the documentary TV series African Life and the feature films African Dilemma, parts 1 & 2, African Youth, Manchester Bound, and Honeysuckle. She has recently published a novel, My Songbird Can Dance. See vigilchime.com for more information on her career.

Teju ColeTeju Cole was raised in Lagos, Nigeria, moving to the US at the age of seventeen. He is the author of Every Day is for the Thief, a novella of Lagos, as well as Open City, a novel of New York City which will be published in February. His writing has appeared or is in press with Transition, Tin House, Chimurenga, and other journals, and he has been featured several times on the BBC World Service. In addition to his fiction writing, Teju is a professional historian of art, with publications on sixteenth-century Flemish visual culture and contemporary African art. He lives in Brooklyn and is currently at work on another book about Lagos. For more information and to view his work as a photographer, go to tejucole.com.

Oliver MbamaraOliver Mbamara began multiple careers as a lawyer, theater and film actor, playwright, poet, and director of photography in Nigeria before moving to the United States. He has continued all these activities in this country and has also become the publisher of several on-line magazines. He is currently a New York State Administrative Law Judge. He wrote, co-directed, and starred in the films This America and its sequel On the Run Again. He is also at the center of Slave Warrior and the series of Spade films (Spade: The Last Assignment and The Return of Spade). For more on his many accomplishments, see http://www.olivermbamara.com.

Uche NdukaUche Nduka began publishing his poetry in his native Nigeria before moving to Germany, where he lived for many years. He recently relocated to New York and is currently in the LIU Brooklyn MFA in Creative Writing Program. His volumes of poetry include Flower Child, Second Act, The Bremen Poems, Chiaroscuro, If Only the Night, Heart’s Field, and Eel on Reef. He has also published a volume of prose, Belltime Letters. An e-chapbook of poems can be found at http://www.wheelhousemagazine.com/chapbook/nduka.pdf.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

This course explores black female creativity across disciplines. The aim of the course is to construct potential theories of black female creativity. That is: determine if black women share any common impetuses (historical, biological and/or cultural) that compel them to make artistic products that comprise a tradition of works. We begin by examining theories of black female creativity from several perspectives including that of Alice Walker and Ntozake Shange along with contributions from the likes of Monique Wittig and Robert Farris Thompson. Then we study a variety of primary texts from literature (novel, poem and play); art (photography, textiles, and mixed media pieces); oratory (sermon and speech); and performance (music, fashion, dance, drill teams and jump rope). Required texts include Flash of the Spirit, Beloved, and handouts. Assignments include informal writing, midterm, final exam, and recovery project with presentation.

The Brooklyn Campus Outcomes Assessment Committee has developed an LIU-Brooklyn Rubric Toolbox for those interested in guidance about developing rubrics. The Toolbox, which will be available for distribution soon, contains general information about rubrics, as well as sample rubrics from across the Brooklyn Campus. Please join us as Professors Deborah Mutnick (English), Sara Haden (Psychology), and Timothy Leslie (Biology) present on the development and implementation of rubrics used to assess their students.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Leah Dilworth (Professor & Co-Chair, English) will moderate a screening of the film "Never Enough" (a documentary about hoarding), directed by Kelly Anderson, at the New York Metro Studies Association's annual conference. The theme of this year's conference is "Dirt."

Dirt is among the most material but also the most metaphorical and expressive of substances. This conference will explore how people imagine, define, and employ the various concepts and realities of dirt. What does it mean to call something dirty? How do we understand dirt and its supposed opposite, cleanliness? How do we explain the points at which we draw the line between clean and dirty, what we embrace and what we refuse to touch? Drawing on multiple disciplines we will uncover and foreground the (often unconscious) centrality of the metaphors and actualities of dirt to U.S. cultures, values, and lived experiences.

Conference When & Where8:30am-6pm December 4th, 2010 St. John's University in Lower Manhattan 41 Murray Street

Registration forms can be found at www.nymasa.org. Registration is $20 ($10 for students/unwaged).

The Festival runs from November 9-14. As part of a session entitled "Not Found on eHarmony," Stephanie will screen her 7-minute Super-8 film "Never Heard the Word Impossible" which takes its title from 70s sitcom Laverne & Shirley. About the film, Stephanie says,

"[It's] kinda about that "L" word (and "L" shirt of you know who) in that show, those two "roommates. huh. it was handprocessed & the sound is reworked/distorted solely from a few lines in the theme song. i will be showing the real super 8 film on film, not video and we'll play the sound from a cd."

When & WhereWednesday, November 10, 2010, 8:30 PMTheater for the New City in the East Village1st Ave. between 9th/10th Streets

TENDENCIES: Poetics & Practice, curated by Tim Peterson (Trace), is a series of talks by and about contemporary poets, titled in honor of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. The series explores the relationship between queer theory, poetic practice, manifesto, and pedagogy. All events are co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities, CLAGS (the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies), The Graduate Center PhD Program in English, and the Graduate Center Poetics Group.

The next event features talks by Stephanie Gray, Dawn Lundy Martin, and Nathaniel Siegel, followed by a discussion/Q&A session.

Filmmaker and writer Stephanie Gray's first collection of poetry, Heart Stoner Bingo was published by Straw Gate Books in 2007. Publications include EOAGH, 2ndAvenuePoetry, The Recluse, and Press 1. Readings include the PRJCTNS, Segue, Zinc, and Poetry Project Friday series. Her short experimental super 8 films, often city portraits or mini-symphonies have screened internationally, including at the Ann Arbor, Oberhausen, and Viennale fests. Her queer-themed films are often about pop cultural figures such as dyke heroine Joan of Arc in Dear Joan and the perceived dyke heroine Kristy McNichol in Kristy, both of which have screened at gay & lesbian film fests such as Frameline (San Francisco), Outfest (Los Angeles), and Mix NYC. Her analog video from the early 00s, close your hearing for the cap(shuns) is probably the only art work out there to mash up "Our Lips Our Sealed" on slo-mo with Schoolhouse Rock's "Conjunction Junction" and Charlie Brown's indecipherable adults to explore themes of language, hearing loss and our construction of meaning. If you know of others let her know.

Webinar Description: It’s important that advising and other student affairs offices create a welcoming and inclusive environment for their Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Allied student populations. This webinar will outline the important steps offices can take to serve LGBTQA students effectively in their day-to-day practice. Key terms, definitions and concepts will be presented. Participants will discuss the critical issues facing LGBTQA special populations such as low-income students, under-represented students, student-veterans, student-parents, and student-athletes. Participants will also learn about important regional and national resources including Safe Zone/Safe Space programs. Finally, the importance of understanding unique career advising issues that relate to LGBTQA students will be discussed.

The English Department is happy to congratulate Bernice Braid (Professor Emerita in the English Department) on her being selected as a National Collegiate Honors Council Fellow. Formerly Dean of Academic and Instructional Resources, in which capacity she directed the Honors Program and the Freshman Orientation Program, among other things, Bernice is now the Director of the Core Seminar Program at the the Brooklyn Campus.

We are proud to announce that one of our own, Professor Bernice Braid, has been selected as a member of the inaugural class of National Collegiate Honors Council Fellows. The NCHC is one of the nation¹s premier higher educational professional organizations, dedicated to honors teaching, learning, scholarship and leadership.

The NCHC named Professor Braid after a rigorous process of nominations and careful consideration of her significant contributions to honors education at regional and national levels.

Yolaine M. St. Fort (Creative-Writing MA alum) and Willie Perdomo (current MFA student) will be presenting at Turning Tides: A Symposium on Diasporic Literatures, a conference to be held at Fordham University on November 6, 2010.

Yolaine will be on a panel entitled Haiti: After the Earthquake, from 1:15-2:15, and Willie will participate in a panel called Puerto Rico: Creative Disobedience in New Nuyorican Writing from 2:15-3:15.

Why does new vocabulary matter so much when college students read challenging texts? Can we assume that our students know what certain words mean, words that seem obvious to us as instructors? How can we find out if students comprehend words or not? What should our approach be when they don’t know or misinterpret the meaning of a word?